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Fandango Buys Movieclips, Launches Twitter Ticketing

UPDATED: The movie-guide website, owned by NBCUniversal, is adding to its video content and launching a new way for people to buy tickets for titles like "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" and "Godzilla."

Fandango has acquired film clip curator Movieclips, enabling the NBCUniversal-owned ticketing service to add video content from popular films.

Separately, the movie-ticketing company is taking advantage of Twitter's new "cards" feature to allow users to get more info about upcoming films and even buy tickets by tapping on a button in a tweet.

The first two films to take advantage of the new Twitter card feature are The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Godzilla, advance tickets for both of which are available on Fandango already.

Movieclips, a division of Zefr, consists of 45,000 curated film clips, trailers and original video productions across 25 YouTube channels, including the site's No. 1 movie trailers channel. Movieclips' YouTube network has more than 7 million subscribers with an average of 200 million video views per month.

"The Movieclips acquisition will further serve our fans, enhancing the Fandango experience with amazing video content available at one definitive destination," Fandango president Paul Yanover said in a statement. "This deal, along with the launch of our redesigned website and mobile apps, will provide consumers an even better way to explore and share their passion for the movies."

Yanover told The Hollywood Reporter that he was impressed by the large audience that Movieclips created with its video content, explaining that he saw the acquisition as part of Fandango's strategy to create an immersive experience for movie fans.

"It's just a really, really big reach network that can drive more people into a purchase funnel and grow this e-commerce business," he said. "It's totally an additive to this movie fandom. We want people to really, really immerse themselves in movies, so not only is Movieclips big reach material, it's a big video experience, and while we have a lot of videos in our core products today, this significantly expands the reach for us."

Yanover, who wouldn't disclose the Movieclips purchase price, said the Zefr team will both keep doing what they've been doing and create new types of content.

As for the Twitter deal, Yanover said nearly half of Fandango's audience and business comes from mobile devices and he hoped that the cards would create a better experience for fans looking to buy tickets on Twitter.

"Now a studio or a director or actor can talk about their movie, and effectively Fandango ticket-buying is automatically constructed into the tweet," he said.

With Movieclips, Fandango will be able to add more video, content and movie-discovery features. Movieclips' video content will be featured across Fandango's online and mobile platforms, including its newly redesigned website and mobile apps.

Movieclips was established in 2009 and has since partnered with Hollywood studios and licensed their content to create and distribute clips from popular films, generating more than 5.2 billion video views across its YouTube network to date.

“The Movieclips team is very excited to join Fandango. This is a tremendous opportunity for everyone involved to be part of building the ultimate destination for moviegoers and fans alike,” Zefr co-founder Rich Raddon said in a statement. “When we created Movieclips five years ago, we saw the huge potential of YouTube as a place for fans to connect with content. Movieclips played a key role in helping develop Zefr and we’re thrilled to be sending it to Fandango where it will continue to be utilized and enjoyed on such a large scale."